s it round the tree, perhaps with the idea of investing the
spirit of the boy with the sacred thread. She will then walk round the
tree as a symbol of the wedding ceremony of walking round the sacred
post, and hopes that the boy, being thus brought to man's estate
and married, will cause her to bear a son. But modest women do not
go naked round the tree. The Amawas or New Moon day, if it falls on
a Monday, is specially observed by married women. On this day they
will walk 108 times round a pipal tree, and then give 108 mangoes or
other fruits to a Brahman, choosing a different fruit every time. The
number 108 means a hundred and a little more to show there is no stint,
'Full measure and flowing over,' like the customary present of Rs. 1-4
instead of a rupee. This is also no doubt a birth-charm, fruit being
given so that the woman may become fruitful. Or a childless woman will
pray to Hanuman or Mahabir. Every morning she will go to his shrine
with an offering of fruit or flowers, and every evening will set a
lamp burning there; and morning and evening, prostrating herself, she
makes her continuous prayer to the god: '_Oh, Mahabir, Maharaj! hamko
ek batcha do, sirf ek batcha do_.' [32] Then, after many days, Mahabir,
as might be anticipated, appears to her in a dream and promises her a
child. It does not seem that they believe that Mahabir himself directly
renders the woman fertile, because similar prayers are made to the
River Nerbudda, a goddess. But perhaps he, being the god of strength,
lends virile power to her husband. Another prescription is to go to
the burying-ground, and, after worshipping it, to take some of the
bone-ash of a burnt corpse and wear this wrapped up in an amulet on
the body. Occasionally, if a woman can get no children she will go
to the father of a large family and let him beget a child upon her,
with or without the connivance of her husband. But only the more
immodest women do this. Or she cuts a piece off the breast-cloth of
a woman who has children, and, after burning incense on it, wears
it as an amulet For a stronger charm she will take a piece of such
a woman's cloth and a lock of her hair and some earth which her feet
have pressed and bury these in a pot before Devi's shrine, sometimes
fashioning an image of the woman out of them. Then, as they rot away,
the child-bearing power of the fertile woman will be transferred to
her. If a woman's first children have died and she wishes to preserve